A busy week, including some match fishing

I hope everybody had a good memorial day. Boy, I had a busy one. I was on Kentucky Lake to fish the final rounds of the Ultimate Match Fishing tournament. What a fantastic event and great format. Don’t know if you’ve seen that, but it’s really interesting. I’m competing as part of the event that happens after the one that’s on television now.

The first round for us was at Lake Guntersville and the final rounds were the past few days at Kentucky Lake. There were 12 of the best anglers in the business there, and it was fun getting to compete in that event.

It’s a really interesting format. Two guys in a boat. They divide the event into four quarters, and one person controls the boat for two of the four quarters. The other person gets control the other two. And you have a referee.

Needless to say, the rules are different than our standard bass competition rules. For one thing, there’s a line painted in the center of the boat, and that line extends to infinity. And you’re in the rear of the boat for two quarters, either the first and third or second and fourth. There’s a lot of mental strategy that goes into the match events.

It’s completely different from our bass tournaments when we have eight or nine hours to fish, and you can go at your own pace. During our tournaments, if you get on to something good, you have time to work it, stay with it. Not here.

When you’re in the back of the boat, you’d be surprised how far backward you have to cast to avoid a penalty. And a penalty is 2/10 of a pound. That’s big.

If your competitor is savvy on which holes he’s fishing, he can back you into a position where you’ve got almost no water to fish in.

Basically you sit out those two quarters. The quarters are two hours long, so in that two hours of fishing time, the defensive fishing really comes into play. You have to pick areas where you hope you can catch fish, but you have to see to it that your opponent can’t. That part’s really interesting.

It’s one of the highest pressure events I’ve ever been in.

The season starts in July and it’ll air all the way through December. With 12 of the top anglers in the world, I think you’ll enjoy seeing how it unfolds.

Anyway, got through with that and came back to my office to get a little bit of work done before we start packing again. In a few days we’re off to Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke, Virginia, for the Blue Ridge Brawl. That’s our next Elite Series tournament.

It’s a good clear water lake. Should be fun.